Athens, Ga. – Four candidates for the position of Pierre Daura Curator of European Art at the Georgia Museum of Art, which is located on the University of Georgia campus, will give individual lectures open to the public as a part of the final selection process in February and March.
Lynn Edward Boland will present the lecture “Dissonance: Atonality and Abstraction in Germany and Russia, 1911-1915” in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium at the museum Monday, Feb. 16, at 2:30 p.m. Boland specializes in European art history of the 19th and 20th centuries with a second concentration in American contemporary art. He is proficient in English, French, Russian and German and teaches such courses as 20th-Century European Art to 1940. During his undergraduate years at the University of Georgia, Boland served as an administrative assistant at the Georgia Museum of Art and was recognized as the Louis T. Griffith Student of the Year. Currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, Boland is set to complete his degree this May.
On Feb. 25, Ariel Plotek will give his lecture, “Allegory and the Uncanny,” at 2:30 p.m. in the museum’s auditorium. Plotek received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. His primary specialty is 19th-century French art, and his doctoral dissertation explores the connection between allegory and realism in French monumental sculpture in France from 1848 to 1880. Presently, Plotek is a lecturer in the history of art and architecture at Clemson University.
On March 5, Maria Elena Versari will present a lecture titled “Impressionism Solidified: Umberto Boccioni’s Plaster Works and the Definition of Modernity in Sculpture.” Versari earned her Ph.D. in art history at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy. Her dissertation focuses on the Italian Futurists and she is expanding her research to include other contemporary avant-garde movements, including Constructivism and Dadaism. Most recently, she taught 19th- and 20th-century art history at the Università di Messina.
Alexandra Karl will conclude this series of candidate lectures on March 19 with her lecture “Cercle et Carré: Reconstructing the Events.” Karl was awarded a Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Cambridge, with a thesis on Darwinism in German painting from 1875 to 1910. She currently teaches art history at the University of Utah.
For times and locations of the March lectures, see www.uga.edu/gamuseum or call 706/542-GMOA (4662).